Last weekend I binged on Netflix series Chewing Gum. It’s great, watch it now if you like; there are only 12 episodes across two seasons so it won’t take you long! The show’s central character, Tracey, is played by its talented creator, writer and theme song-singer— Michaela Coel. Tracey lives on a housing estate in…
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Today, women and men have more choices than ever when it comes to their reproductive health. Reproductive technology has advanced to the point families can forego pregnancy altogether, or help families conceive through less traditional means. Though many of us are used to the reproductive advances that have been made available throughout the years, it’s…
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I recently spent one whole glorious night and one cruisy Saturday morning in bed with a guy I had met on that universal fuck den, the dance floor. We left the club at 4:00am with the crusty remains of my purple lipstick smeared across the both of our faces and made our way back…
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The irony of the West’s close relationship with Saudi Arabia would be laughable, if it weren’t so troubling. When King Abdullah, of the ruling al-Saud family, died in January 2015, tributes gushed forth from world leaders. Prince Charles, David Cameron and Barack Obama, among others, flew to Riyadh to pay their respects to a man…
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If you’re looking for BOLD in a bookstore, you’ll definitely know when you’ve found it. Its striking cover is mostly red, splashed with the title across the lower half. On the back, it has some impressive cover quotes from Benjamin Law and former Greens leader Bob Brown. Flipping through the pages, you see the many photos collected by the…
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Dating app, Tinder, has recently made adjustments to its profiles and algorithms, to create more ‘meaningful connections’ and lead to a ‘significant increase’ in matches. The profiles will now feature information around the user’s education and employment, while the new algorithm is meant to look at more data points as the user swipes left or…
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There are many aspects of London Road that are just plain weird. This musical-turned-film is based on the true events surrounding the serial murders of five female sex workers in 2006 by Steve Wright, taking interviews about the crimes verbatim and turning them into snazzy show-tunes. But perhaps what is most unique about London Road…
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I identify as a sex-neutral feminist. This doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion on sex. In fact, it very much means the opposite. My first run in with feminism was a fairly negative one, I do admit, and has actually greatly helped me in becoming the feminist I am today. Coming from a fairly…
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It’s been said that as human beings, we have a reptilian brain that responds to certain primal urges. Food is one. Sex and reproduction is definitely another. This underlying, pre-programmed disposition to respond to sexual imagery is so strong that it has been used for over 100 years in advertising. And the industry, while abusing…
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After watching a myriad of gore-tastic movies over the past couple of decades, I’d forgotten how utterly terrifying a foe that walks, not runs, toward you can be. Torture porn will no doubt disgust and horrify (and if it doesn’t that is really weird) but the slow walk of the predator in It Follows…
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‘Polyamory is a claim that the heart is capable of loving more than one person deeply and intimately at the same time,’ wrote Anne Hunter in Archer Magazine. ‘Poly relationships are often sexual but may not be, and they may shift in and out of being romantic and sexual.’ In her article, she discusses the…
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Watching Lena Dunham’s Girls for the first time was an edifying experience. A large part of the show’s appeal for me—and perhaps for countless other teenagers and women in their early twenties—is its flawed and often hapless characters, who are relatable precisely because of their faults. Here was Hannah Horvath: podgy, solipsistic beyond help,…
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‘Sex-crazed, emotionless boors’: this is just one insult levelled at people identifying as polyamorous. FYI, polyamory is more than fucking – but a diverse sex life is all part of the fun. Over the next two columns, we look at polyamory, a new paradigm of how to “do” relationships that has been growing in awareness…
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Before 50 Shades of Grey inspires you to go paddle shopping, I feel like I should butt in (see what I did there?). It’s actually kind of hard to tell whether spanking is: (a) the mark of a free woman who apologises to no one in search of her own pleasure, or (b) the patriarchy…
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